Ackroyd and Thackeray Books In Order

Publication Order of Ackroyd and Thackeray Books

Patricia Hall is a published author and is the pen name used by Maureen O’Connor.

Maureen O’Connor is an author and journalist. She was born in 1957 in West Yorkshire, where she grew up. She attended Birmingham University and worked at Evening Standard and the BBC as well as The Guardian.

The author is now married with two sons. She currently resides in Oxford. Her first mystery novel came out in 1993 and was titled The Poison Pool. She is the creator and the author of the Ackroyd and Thackeray series of novels.

The crime fiction series kicked off in 2000 when the first book was released. The main characters in this mystery series are Inspector Michael Thackeray and Laura Ackroyd, a reporter. The fifteenth story in the series came out in 2009.

Death By Election is the first novel in Hall’s Ackroyd and Thackeray series. If you love mystery novels that keep you guessing until the end, check this debut story out!

Laura Ackroyd is a reporter and she never runs out of political material thanks to the fact that she lives in Yorkshire. England always has something going on and Laura is thrilled when she finds out that a parliamentary by-election is being hotly contested. This is precisely the type of event that is tailor made to boost her career.

Bradfield, Yorkshire is the location where this by-election is going on, and things could not be sweeter for a newspaper reporter such as Ackroyd. She is in the perfect position to cover all of this because she knows this town and its people inside and out. She is uniquely poised to have the insider angle and use it to her advantage. The benefits to her career could be huge.

This reporter knows that she’s going to have a way better idea of what’s going on with the Yorkshire politics scene than all of the big time reporting experts that think they know it all. They’re going to step off the train from London and proceed to act like they are the experts when this is likely the first time that they have ever been to Bradfield in their lives.

Laura is beyond excited to have the job that she does and get to work covering the election. She loves to work and often can get too wrapped up in her professional world. However, she does have a balance in her personal life provided by her grandmother. Her wry granny always can make her laugh and is also politically active, so they always have something to talk about.

The one thing that Laura never sees coming is her former boyfriend returning to the area. The last that she knew, he was preoccupied in London. She supposes that the appeal of the city has either lost his shine, or she is the reason that he has come back.

Even as all of these things are happening, Laura finds that her workload is getting humongous. She barely has time to consider her personal life as she gets assigned news stories. One of these happens to be an investigation going on with the police regarding a body that was discovered that remains unidentified.

She also is tasked with covering a campaign by students to try and get at different public figures, as well as assigned to follow up on some back room potential dirty deals being done in the local town hall. This journalist is working hard to try and get to the root of each story and get all of the inside scoop. Her name and her career are at stake!

She’s doing her best to try and cover each story to the fullest. However, she may be unprepared when she finds out a variety of dark secrets. From emotional blackmail to new and old indiscretions to a ton of violent acts, Laura is getting a whole lot more than she ever bargained for.

Is she equipped to handle it? Only time will tell. The inquiries that she is making may be taking her closer to the truth– that all of these events and stories have something in common. Along the way, she catches Michael Thackeray’s attention.

The inspector is also working on these cases, and the attractive inspector thinks that this reporter isn’t doing a half bad job. The only trouble is, a killer has noticed Laura as well. Will the two of them get to the bottom of it all, or will they be taken out before they have the chance?

Read the exciting first novel in this mystery series to find out! Pick up a copy of the exciting Death By Election and discover what happens in the end.

The second book in Patricia Hall’s Ackroyd and Thackeray series is Dying Fall. The reader is returned once again to Bradfield, located in Yorkshire, and to the main characters that they met in the debut story.

The area has come under the intense oppression of a vicious heat wave that is covering the area. Everyone is miserable and no one knows what to do about it– they just have to wait until it goes away. The heat is only making tensions in the Heights worse.

The Heights is a council estate ridden with crime and now there’s a problem involving young people going on joy rides with stolen cars every night. They race the cars on the local streets, which is of course too dangerous to go on. But when new reports come out of local children being attacked, Michael Thackeray decides to send an undercover cop in.

Residents go from uneasy to angry when a young girl ends up dead. Laura is covering this entire situation and while doing so, notices that there are things in common with this case and one a decade earlier. She’s been doing research on a case involving Stephen Webster for a television show.

Said to have killed his stepsister, he’s been stuck in jail for the better part of 10 years. Was he innocent or is it a copycat killing? Thackeray must work with Ackroyd to crack the case and find out. Pick up this book to find out how it ends!